Family
by Le Pecore Nere
Summary: because to him, being a CSI was more than a paycheck.


A/N: This is my very first attempt at a CSI fic, so please go easy. Also this will be a part of a multiple series of one-shots that give different character perspectives on different points on the series. Hope you all enjoy. Also, apologies at the end, I couldn't find out exactly what they said to each other so I kinda improvised 

Disclaimer: I own this. Seriously. Not.

-&…&-

Ryan Wolfe sat down in the white chair in the news room. He sighed, he absolutely hated this job. He adjusted his coat. The news lady, he could never remember her name and wanted to call her a different name every time. No he wanted to call her by _her_ name, the one who made him feel at home. Her smile flashed before his eyes while she just finished her statement.

"…ex criminalst Ryan Wolfe has to say on this. Ryan?" She said, professional, cheery, to the point. Like _her_ in so many ways, yet never close. He couldn't bear it, every time he ran into _her_, she always looked like he had slapped her.

"Ryan?"

"What, can you repeat that?" He said, brought back from his brooding.

She repeated. He smiled, he knew exactly how he should respond, but he didn't. He dropped his head. _I'm fired over this, but I don't care. Screw the paycheck._ He thought.

"I'm sorry, but I can't." He started to say, the staff around him looked shocked.

"Wh-"

"Look, my time here has been, uh… it's been really fascinating. It's been great." _I hate it here, really I do._ "But there's some place else I think I gotta be. There are men and women who put themselves in harm's way every day." He thought about all the times he had risked his life over someone else's how easy, how thoughtless and sudden all those instances had been, as if it had been a natural instinct, and how different it was sitting in this news chair, safe from harm, but pretending what he was doing was important. "It's their lives over ours, and for them, it's not something that they do. It's something that, you know, they are." He said, this time he thought about all the times Horatio, Frank , Calleigh, and Eric had put their lives on the line, when they had brought down so many bad guys, they, no we didn't do it for the pay check, we did it because it was a passion. Because it was a calling, a loyalty, a part of who we are. "Now I'm not gonna try and make myself sound so honorable, but I took an oath. I took an oath to protect the people of Miami." _I can't let these people down, even just saving one life was what made it worthwhile. _How grateful all those people had been, when their son, their daughter, brother, sister, wife, or husband had been saved. "and I was born to be a cop. And uh, I think I lost sight of that along the way." He thought about the team, his team. That's what they were to him, a team. No they were more than a team, they were family. He wouldn't, no_ couldn't_ let them down. They came first in his mind. He thought of _her_ Calleigh, she was beautiful, her smile, he loved her, and he would do anything to keep her from harm. He thought about Eric, when he had been shot, he was told he had died. Died. That was the awakening, that if something happened, it was permanent, and how there was nothing that could have been done to stop it. He thought about Horatio, how he had always at some point looked out for the well-being of everyone. It was these people who were family. And to Ryan Wolfe, family came before a pay check.

-&…&-

Ryan walked up to Horatio, who was waiting for him.

"Horatio." He said, slightly out of breathe from the walk.

"Mr. Wolfe." He said, taking off his sunglasses.

"I came to tell you I uh- quit." He said.

"You did a very bad thing, Ryan, what you did made the case dirty."

"I paid the guy money so he wouldn't have any power over me when we were doing the case." He had to understand that, he didn't pay the guy to get him out, he paid him so he wouldn't bother him anymore. "I just want you to know that I'll answer every call-back for a case in question, and I may not have my badge, but I will help in any way I can. I won't abandon this team, Horatio."

Horatio just smiled, and put his sunglasses on "And we, Mr. Wolfe, will not abandon you." He turned and began to walk back in the building. And for the first time since he was fired, Ryan felt happy.

-&...&-

Done. Please review.


End file.
